Four tips to improve your company’s internal communications

Organisations are giving more weight to the concept of internal communications, but beforesitting down to develop a strategy consider the followingpoints:

1.Do you know what you want toachieve?

Publishing a glossy brochure, investing in a state of the art intranet or holding a seriesof ‘management talks’ might sound like great achievements, but are they changing the waypeople work and communicate? Knowing what behaviour you want to change or encourage, or whatyou want employees to do is key before you start developing your strategy. A lot of organisationswant to develop an internal communications strategy, without knowing exactly what they are tryingto communicate orachieve.

2.Know what internal communicationsis.

Internal communications should serve the function of a bridge between senior staff leaders andall other employees. It should build and encourage employees to become brand ambassadorsand connect with and know their organisation. It should be informative. If your internalcommunications are not achieving this, you are not doing itright.

3.Know your audience, tailor yourmessage.

Internal stakeholders can be as varied as a senior stakeholder to off-site word processors. Ifyou are planning an ‘all staff’ newsletter ensure it contains messages and content that appeal tothe entire audience, otherwise it isspam.

4.Follow theleader.

Employees want to hear from experts. They want to know, what the people in the knowthink. Achieving engagement from employees is different. To achieve engagement, employees wantto be heard too. They want to communicate with the senior leaders of the organisation.Once employees are contributing to the big picture, they work harder, are more loyal andembrace changes an organisation undergoes as it develops andgrows.